Are Volkswagen’s crimes really that bad? Not according to Jeremy Clarkson. The guy who got himself fired for slamming his knuckles into another man’s face has come to VW’s defense in his weekly column for The Sunday Times. In typical Jezza fashion, he had a field day. He said VW’s senior management needs to "stop wringing their hands and sweating in press conferences and go on the attack. He blames "eco-mentalists" for pushing the so-called clean diesels by influencing others of their green tech credentials.

That caused various “soft-in-the-head governments” to believe those opinions as fact which led to new NOX regulations. That left VW with no choice but to redesign its diesels, only to take things a step further by fitting "its engines with a clever bit of software that exaggerated their economy and cleanliness when they were being tested." That is "just a bit of good-natured rule-bending, and we all do that." But also added that if VW is "driven into the wilderness…the fallout will be immense because it owns Audi, Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, Seat and Skoda as well…and without the profits from these engineering powerhouses Germany would no longer be in a position to bail out the Greeks or house half of Syria."